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Will Facebook Advertising work?

If GM's pulling its ads off Facebook, should you concerned about the investment you made in buying Facebook shares?

Frankly, I don't know.

But I do know a few other things. Advertising essentially is 'talking'. The best a brand can do while advertising (read talking) is, first talk to the right audience, and second, talk to an audience that wants to listen. When it comes to using Facebook to advertise, finding the right audience to talk to is easier done than getting them to listen.

The million dollar question for the moment is whether the target audience a brand finds on Facebook would be keen to listen to what the brand has to say. Remember, the audience congregates on Facebook to socialise, and so would they heed to marketer talk? To come to a fair conclusion of the question posed, one has to assess the 'nature of socialising' on Facebook.

How much of person's time on Facebook is spent in 'active' socialising? Active would refer to 'creating' and 'propogating' content. Passive socialising on the other hand would mean being a spectator and consumer of content. My gut tells me, a marketer 'talking' stands a chance when a Facebook user is 'passively' socialising. Passive socialisation turns the user into being more conducive to 'listening', and that's when the marketer must talk. Of course, knowing when a user's active or passive could still pose a problem. But If that's known and the 'chance' posed is taken, I believe it would be possible for a marketer to connect with its audience on Facebook.

On a broader note, its important to recognise that social media mustn't be seen just as a medium where the marketer can propagate messages. Instead social media must be leveraged to listen to, support, energise, and embrace a brand's target audience.